Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal are the best of friends but have one of the most hilarious on-screen dynamics of all time. The two comprise half of the ‘Inside The NBA’ crew on TNT, and regularly have some of the funniest moments that the show has.
One of the classics is when the crew is having a conversation about being mistaken for someone else. Shaq said people mistake him for others all the time and the crew found it hard to believe, considering there aren’t many 7 footers with 3 Finals MVPs walking down the street.
After the crew asked Shaq who he gets mistaken for, Barkley piped in with a quip that would leave ‘Big Diesel’ fuming. Charles suggested Shaq would get mistaken for the animated character Shrek, an ogre who lives in a swamp. The entire crew bursts into laughter, including Ernie Johnson while Shaq gets upset with the production assistants behind the camera audibly cracking up at the joke. At least Kenny Smith tried to stand up for them.
The funniest part of the segment has to be when the crew transitions to Shaq’s blooper reel show ‘Shaqtin’ A Fool‘ and Shaq requests Kenny not to make the obvious Shrek and Shaq connection while he sings the intro to the show. While Kenny doesn’t call Shaq Shrek during the segment, he does end the intro by yelling ‘Where’s Fiona?’, a reference to the love interest of Shrek in the movies.
If it wasn’t already clear, Shaq would not like to be mistaken for a green ogre. Shaq and Shrek are both equally beloved as independent entities, but for very different reasons. It was great to see Shaq sense the humor of the room and have some fun at his expense, even though he did get really upset about the jokes for a minute there.
Charles Barkley with yet another legendary quip on TV.
